My Senator, David Vitter, just months after Katrina, declared that same-sex marriage was the most critical issue facing America today. He was a good little GOP robot, putting aside the crises faced by his own constituents to beat the scary "queers are coming to destroy marriage!" drum before the midterm elections.

The same Mr. Vitter was believed by many of us down here to be among the high and mighty whose names were in the book of the famous Canal Street Madam--whose prosecution took up the attention of our local FBI and U.S. Attorney General's office in the months following 9/11 -- another awesome misdirection of priorities by the ever-moralizing GOP administration.

So, guess who's top of the headlines this past half-hour, for turning up in the DC Madam's little black book? Yep. The law is fine for thee, but not for me--Mr. Vitter.

Before anyone decides to whine about how hypocrisy is the favorite sin of liberals, consider, instead, asking why the GOP keeps serving up heaping, steaming piles of it.

I've been faithful every one of the 15 years shared with my partner. Senator Vitter ought to give that a try. It's easy--just don't f*ck anyone else.

A while ago, I had a lousy job on the copy desk of a southern newspaper, in a town where everything closed at midnight, an hour before my shift ended. I'd go home, drink a Bacardi rum cooler and work my way one video at a time through the small library collection. One of them was a Nova episode on the 5 (or is it 6?) constant patterns in nature, and how they're found throughout each thing, at every level. Like the spiral of a pine cone is repeated in the pattern of a pine tree's bark, and in the pattern by which the needles develop on the branches, and the branches develop on the tree. It was the coolest thing, and it made me envy visual artists who can see those things themselves, and understand them.

Once, long ago, I had a dream in which I realized there was some particular number of visual patterns. Maybe it was 5. So it was perfectly clear that everything visual could be sorted into these 5 patterns. (They were complex patterns involving shape, color, and composition.) I was delighted to perceive this. Then, of course, I woke up and had no idea what the patterns were, and I had to doubt whether there had even been any patterns as opposed to the feeling that there were patterns. I still feel a sense of loss about that.

Since we're talking about whatever we like, I thought I'd repost an earlier comment the Blithering Misogynist Idiot deleted:

Don't like it? Impeach him! Or just bitch about it and try to obstruct whatever you can as you drive your ratings toward the single digits after sweeping into office in January promising to deliver all sorts of accomplishments. Your choice, Congress.

So much bubbles to the surface here - her obvious wingnut sensibilities, her complete and total lack of any understanding of the constitution, and of course, the whole box wine thing...